Great effort today, he must have been gutted after Sunday's stage but to bounce back like that shows heart.

Going to be tough to get on the podium, however he could still get a top 5 and that should give him all the confidence and belief he needs that he could well win a GT one year. Long way to get yet though I admit...

A great ride after his crash. G has always been tough though. The legs are definitely in good shape. Tomorrow might be a test for his shoulder.

@Hello Dolly/Valv

If it weren't for the crash, G would certainly be in 2nd place. Assuming he climbed Blockhaus with Pinot and Dumoulin (quite reasonable, given how he rode against Pinot in the Tour of the Alps and how he rode today), he'd be about 45secs. down.

While I meant to write 45 seconds behind...nothing to so with maths more to do with typing

Thomas would have been imo at 28 (or less) and then Dumoulin 32 after stage 9 so that is a 4 seconds advantage and then 49 disadantage today

But while my slip of 20 seconds calls for comparisons to Diane Abbott and uncalled for derision there is every reason to beleive that Thomas may have done better on the TT but for the crash and he could well have gotton a few seconds nearer to Quintana and alot nearer to Dumoulin todayHe is bound to have been impeded by the crash ..so 20 seconds is as good as guestimate as any

SeriousSam wrote:Will be interesting to track his hypothetical standing in the GC, assuming he'd have finished with Pinot and Dumoulin on Blockhaus

Why assume that? Why not assume he finishes with Mollema? Or Nibali? Or Kruijswijk? Or any of the other riders in between Quintana and his actual finishing place?

Shouldn't we wait until we see how he's climbing before we assume a climbing level for him?

I'm not advocating that we persist with the assumption he'd have finished with Pinot and Dumoulin if he cannot keep up with them in the remaining mountain stages.

If you're asking whether I can make a case that with the information we have right now, it's a better assumption than that he'd have finished with Mollema, the answer is no. Than Crushweak? I probably can.

It's essentially about where you rank G as a climber in general, when he has good form (as today's TT indicates).

I agree with the last part certainly, but I really can't see much case for ranking Thomas, in any form, as a climber ahead of any of the other starting favourites until he shows otherwise. And by "shows otherwise" I mean shows an ability to climb better than them over a whole series of back to back climbing stages. We are talking about a guy who is in his 30s and has never done that.

Now maybe he can do it. In the history of transformations at Sky, a superb generalist like Thomas becoming a very high level climber wouldn't rank near the top. But a good time trial is not significant evidence of it. I don't think it's impossible that he could have held Dumoulin's wheel, but it's hardly something I'd be willing to assume. As you say though, if he climbs with the likes of Pinot, Nibali, Dumoulin for the rest of the Giro, that kind of assumption would retrospectively be fair enough.

I'm mostly just bitter that a stupid accident means that we still don't really know his current climbing level (or Landa's).

HelloDolly wrote:While I meant to write 45 seconds behind...nothing to so with maths more to do with typing

Thomas would have been imo at 28 (or less) and then Dumoulin 32 after stage 9 so that is a 4 seconds advantage and then 49 disadantage today

But while my slip of 20 seconds calls for comparisons to Diane Abbott and uncalled for derision there is every reason to beleive that Thomas may have done better on the TT but for the crash and he could well have gotton a few seconds nearer to Quintana and alot nearer to Dumoulin todayHe is bound to have been impeded by the crash ..so 20 seconds is as good as guestimate as any

Calm, it was a joke.

Thomas said that the pain in his shoulder didn't affect the TT performance too much; it hurt a bit wasn't overly bad because he just tried to block it out. On the climb I don't know if he'd have done as well as Pinot and Dumoulin, and using Trentino as a basis for comparison is pretty useless considering Pozzovivo was climbing close to top Thomas and around where Pinot was, yet lost almost a minute to him. 45 seconds is extremely possible, 20 less so.

froome is sat at home with a massive cheese face. if he can get his pre giro form back he is probably the best domestique on the planet. it also means landa can go insane with stage hunting in the last week which should be fun to watch.